(S01E19) It's Linderman's voice we hear over the "previously on Heroes" opening segment, rather than that of previous narrator Mohinder. That's an improvement. To tell you the truth I didn't know what to expect tonight. Heroes seems like it has been gone so long, I started worrying that its return would inevitably fail to live up to my anticipation.I needn't have worried. I quickly found myself falling right back into the groove of the show. My favorite storyline was the Texas one. I enjoyed HRG's orchestration of the escape, using his knowledge of Matt and Ted's powers. As the Eric Roberts character will later say of HRG to the Artist Mohinder: "Glasses? Tall fella? He's no longer with the company." No doubt.
Though how funny is it when Matt suddenly realizes HRG is not some major player, but only "middle-management" without absolute knowledge of what the Company's overall agenda is, or even that Linderman is involved?
Linderman turns out to be some sort of idealist, in his own mind at least. Got to say though, that plan of bringing about world unity via nuclear disaster is a pretty tough sale. Recent history alone is filled with plenty of unprecedented catastrophes -- none of which have brought the human race to any condition approaching unity.
Sorry, even for a super-villain this plan's dicey. Naturally, this may not be Linderman's real motivation, but only his approach at hooking Nathan. And Nathan seems to take the bait.
Early on, it does look as if Nathan's repulsed by the whole scheme. The clincher seems to be Nathan's discovery that Peter might (though it is still a mighty big might) be able to survive self-explosion. By this time Nathan has had a chance to salivate awhile over the idea of himself in the Oval Office. Nathan hears Peter's theory that Claire's presence in New York is the "save the world" part of a certain famous catch-phrase. He decides to send her to Paris until after the election anyway. Seems clear that Nathan is signing on to the Linderman plan.
It's a good thing Mohinder packed Peter's corpse into the cab and personally brought it to the Petrelli mansion, rather than, say, call 911. It's probably no surprise to viewers that Peter didn't stay dead. The real suspense here came in wondering how he would return to life and how long it would take. Because of the early reveal of Linderman's own ability, I thought Peter might actually stay dead awhile and get resurrected by the big man himself. Or maybe that Mama Petrelli's (still unrevealed) power might also be as a healer of some sort. But Claire's removal of a glass shard hidden in Peter's trademarked dark wavy locks made a nice sort of symmetry with his first meeting of cheerleader.
Future Hiro, when he contacted Peter, stopping time in a subway car early in the series, mentioned not recognizing Peter "without his scar." Peter didn't get that scar from Sylar we now know. With his Claire-ability I imagine giving him a physical scar won't be easy in any case. Maybe this indicates that the past (from Future Hiro's point-of-view) has been changed, or maybe additional scarification possibilities lie ahead in Peter's future.
Candice tries to pass herself off as Claire to HRG, but he isn't fooled. Impersonating family-members to get information is not the kind of trick you can pull over and over again on the same person, after all. 
Actually, I think Candice and the Company are attempting to mess with Mr. Bennet's head here, and not really fool him.
Candice soon moves on to kidnapping Micah for Linderman. He politely asks Jessica for Micah first, which you'd think would spur Jessica into running away immediately with the kid, but it doesn't. Anyhow, with the way Jessica/Niki and D.L. handle their lives, maybe Micah is better off as the pawn of an evil billionaire for awhile. D.L. makes an interesting statement at one point. He says Jessica's personality is a lot more like Niki/Jessica's father than that of the dead twin, so crazy in this family goes back at least one generation.
Isaac the artist gets a real send-off. I actually started to like him for the first time right as he's dying, which is the way it seems to go on these contemporary serial dramas. Sylar appears mesmerized by his newest ability, painting the future. But if Isaac is right this is just about the end of the road for the serial-killer. Syar's own painting-style is, appropriately for the character, much more twisted than Isaac's. His own rendering of a previously-painted scene is distorted and savage.
We only get back to the future with Hiro and Ando in the final minutes, just enough time for Hiro to confuse Ando with his theory about how Isaac might still be alive. I suspect most fans were happy to see Future Hiro turn up. However, Future Hiro himself seems none too pleased with his past self. "You," he says, with unreserved contempt. Didn't expect that. I'm looking forward to see how it plays out ...
On TV Squad's recently implemented 1-7 scale I've settled on giving this one a six. Not as awesome as, say, "Company Man" but still pretty good.
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Reader Comments (Page 1 of 4)
4-24-2007 @ 8:47AM
Bill said...
I like that Sylar uses his power to paint the next President. And it's not Nathan, like Isaac painted, it's clearly Frankenstein's monster.
http://popculturejunk.blogspot.com/
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4-24-2007 @ 8:57AM
RedStarRevolution said...
I thought this episode was phenomenal, a great way to re-embark on the journey to the end...
That being said, I cannot wait for next weeks String Theory episode, set 5 yrs into the future. Peter's still alive 5 yrs from now, so he must not have perished in the explosion that destroyed NY, it looks as though he and Nikki/Jessica share a kiss...weird.
I'm excited to see the evolution of all these characters after 5 yrs, who's still alive, who's different, who's evil, who's good, how many hundreds of powers does Peter Petrelli have...this list could go on and on.
On one last note, did anyone not see Issac's death coming, I mean we saw him with his head lopped off when Hiro first traveled to the future and found out the date of the bomb, so this was a given.
All in all, .07% was a great ep, setting the table for the next season. But next week, it seems like Mr Kring is setting the table for the rest of the series...
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4-24-2007 @ 9:15AM
DJ said...
Great return for the series.
One quick theory -- while HRG, Matt and Ted were plotting there next move (at the same diner that Hiro met the girl of his dreams) HRG said that the tracking system was in a building in New York City. While Matt wanted to go to Vegas to track down Linderman, Ted said he always wanted to visit NYC. I think that it really is Ted that goes nuclear and NOT Peter as everyone thinks. HRG -- as he did with Claire -- has in some ways been unkowingly altering Linderman's manipulations.
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4-24-2007 @ 9:19AM
Karen said...
Actually, I didn't think there was much suspense to how and when Peter would return to life. As soon as I saw him delivered to the Petrellis' house, where Claire was, I knew she'd pull out the glass shard in order for him to regenerate--just as she'd regenerated after the branch had been pulled out of her on the autopsy table or after the bullet had been removed from her when Parkman and Sprague came to visit.
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4-24-2007 @ 9:22AM
Philip said...
Loved the episode and looking forward to learning more about how Mama Petrelli fits into the big picture. What is her power?
A correction - it was to Mohinder that Eric Roberts made his comments about HRG, not to Isaac (unless you consider Mohinder to be an artist as well!).
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4-24-2007 @ 9:24AM
Stephanie Berghoff said...
Didn't we see Isaac dead at his table? I don't recall him stretched out on the floor in such a symbolic pose. So the future as Hiro sees it is NOT written in stone...
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4-24-2007 @ 9:34AM
kel said...
"That plan of bringing about world unity via nuclear disaster is a pretty tough sale. "
Actually, this plan seems to mirror what happened after 9/11. After that disaster, this country rallyed around its leader and pretty much let him do what he wanted to do. Did anyone else notice the similarities?
Great episode, but I'm surprised that they're already going the "Days of Future Past" route. Speaking of X-Men, is HRG going to be the Professor X of the Heroes (without the powers, of course)?
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4-24-2007 @ 9:37AM
Michael Canfield said...
Thanks for the correction Philip!
And kel, uh sure, that's why the country is so united now five and a half years later.
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4-24-2007 @ 9:39AM
Grishny said...
When Hiro saw Isaac's body the first time he time-traveled, it was on the floor, and they didn't really show his pose... IIRC, we only saw from the shoulders up, and of course the top of his head lying off to the side. Ick.
My thought for the reviewer: if you're not reading the weekly graphic novels at www.nbc.com/Heroes, then you're missing out. Linderman's healing powers, for example, were revealed there a few weeks ago. The new comic posted there today gives a brief but telling glimpse into the life and mindset of future Hiro, and incidentally reveals that the Heroes timeline actually is fluid and can be changed. There's also the Heroes 360 experience that's following the exploits of Hana Gitelman and how she foiled Linderman's "Plan A" for rigging the Petrelli election, which is why he now wants to use Micah's ability to accomplish the same goal.
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4-24-2007 @ 9:40AM
Eric J. said...
I had the thought tonight, though it may be too late to find out - can Isaac not just paint the future, but change the future through what he paints?
If he can, than Sylar may have gotten an even more powerful upgrade tonight than he thought.
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4-24-2007 @ 9:46AM
Kyle Beasley said...
Heroes is also copying a plotline from the Watchmen. The whole "Manhatten in peril to unite the world" thing. Which I really don't have a problem with since they seem to be skimming plotlines from every comic. I just wish they could acknowledge it some how, like an influences section on their website. I just don't want any winy brats telling me that the Watchmen movie copied Heroes.
Still a very cool show, looking forward to next week.
http://kylebeabo.blogspot.com/
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4-24-2007 @ 10:03AM
JTS said...
Yeah, just to follow up on what Kyle had to say, not only is the "Manhattan in peril" storyline straight out of Watchmen, but so is the "older heroes wearied by their experiences" storyline that we get with Mrs. Petrelli and Linderman. In reality, this has been a strong trend in the whole superhero genre over the last twenty years (The Incredibles is one example everyone should be familiar with), but seeing it reheated here wasn't exactly thrilling.
That being said, this was a really strong return for a show that had sort of lost its way in my mind. Next week should be very exciting, and they've outlined a lot of prospects for the future. I love the moral ambiguity that has been established with Nathan. But I do worry that the Hiro storyline could derail everything. Time travel is impossible to make work plausibly.
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4-24-2007 @ 10:23AM
Michelle said...
This was a great episode, and I can't wait for the resolution to this. It was a long wait, but at least we got something good!
@12 -- You said "In the first episode when Hiro found Isaac's body in the loft. He was taken away by the police and questioned. During questioning is when the explosion happened (the same day as Isaac died). So it looks like the timeline has at least changed somewhat since that episode."
I don't think this is true. First, I don't think Hiro was ever taken by the police, they were interrogating him at Isaac's apartment. And, that isn't neccessarily the same day that Isaac died, so I don't know that the timeline has been altered. Maybe it has/will be, but we don't know that yet.
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4-24-2007 @ 10:24AM
John Howard said...
"In the first episode when Hiro found Isaac's body in the loft. He was taken away by the police and questioned. During questioning is when the explosion happened (the same day as Isaac died). "
How do we know Hiro found him the same day he died?
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4-24-2007 @ 10:26AM
BF said...
Re: The Tracking System.
Here's a thought... maybe the tracking system is actually a hero... possibly Mrs. Petrelli? I don't know how to tie that together, but its intriguing to think that its a hero who knows where all the others are, and Mrs. Petrelli is (IIRC) the only hero whose power has yet to be disclosed.
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4-24-2007 @ 10:36AM
dkny said...
Anyone else think they got a little V style political in sugesting a New World Order could be brought about through disaster - I agree that it's a 9-11 political swipe - I don't feel either way about it but it did jump out
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4-24-2007 @ 10:38AM
Glenn said...
The one problem with next week's episode is that it doesn't continue with what happened this week. It's a cool idea, jumping 5 years ahead (*cough* Galactica *cough*) but 2 weeks from now we finally get to pick back up again where we were at the end of last night.
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4-24-2007 @ 10:40AM
Glenn said...
And Kyle, I second your "Watchmen" point. I like the show, but why copy an already fairly well-known comic?
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4-24-2007 @ 10:45AM
Steve said...
In the promos they keep saying 4 episodes left till the conclusion. Does this mean no second season? What will the story be next year?
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4-24-2007 @ 10:50AM
Blair said...
The Watchmen copying is a little more explicit than most people are mentioning here. Nathan said half of New York would be killed by the blast, and Veidt claimed his psychic monster would also immediately kill half of the population of New York.
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